The New Munich

Lebanon, 2006, and Czechoslovakia, 1938 – the historical parallels
by Justin Raimondo

"There are two possible avenues of American intervention in this battle – aside from the rush of U.S. armaments to Israel and whatever covert cooperation is underway. The first is via the "international force" called for in the UN resolution: of course, an American presence is not stipulated, but, as I have said before, it is difficult to imagine what other country is either prepared or willing to undertake such an operation. Policing southern Lebanon will require anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 troops. Where will they come from? You guessed it…

As opposed to the heroic narrative marketed by the Lobby and its friends, which portrays this as a defensive war, a mere reaction to Lebanese attacks, the reality is that this is the most cynical exercise in brazen aggression since the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in the run-up to World War II. Prior to offering the thinnest of pretexts to justify the invasion of Poland – the Germans claimed Polish soldiers had launched a raid into their territory – Hitler's wolves tore off a large chunk of Czech flesh in the form of the Sudetenland. Today, Israeli predators are biting off a similar-sized chunk of Lebanon on their way to a much larger meal.

One hopes the historical parallels will end there, but I fear not: just as the German push for Lebensraum ended in a world war, so an apparent campaign to give Israel a bit of elbow room may result in yet another global conflagration. The UN resolution, then, amounts to a new Munich agreement, which – if history teaches us anything – will serve to embolden the Israelis to go on the offensive against Syria, and, perhaps, Iran. If the appeasement of Israel continues while the U.S. sacrifices its own clear interest in lessening support for extremists in the Arab-Muslim world, Condoleezza Rice will go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of her time."